At long last, it is SPA DAY! It was beautiful today. Sunny and clear.
I’m a lucky girl — my girlfriends gave me a gift certificate to the spa for my birthday. So today Lori, Laura and I enjoyed a much deserved day of beauty.
Afterwards we met up with Irene at the Steiner Ranch Steakhouse. Their deck overlooks Lake Travis and my favorite Hill Country. We stayed long enough to watch the sunset and feel the temps drop like a rock.
It’s FRIDAY!! Looking forward to the weekend.
I took a walk out back after work today. The sky was beautifully clear, and the moon was high in the sky.
The tree is one of the red oaks in the way back. It’s amazing to see some of the leaves have hung on in all the recent high winds.
I can feel the days getting longer and see the buds on the tree branches starting to swell…. It’s right around the corner!
This little rock (that’s a dime in the background to get a sense of its size) was in a baggie on the kitchen counter this morning.
It is our very own meteorite.
For the roofing project last weekend, we bought one of those large magnetic sweepers on a stick that roofers use to pick up stray nails off the ground. It was actually amazing to see all the seemingly invisible nails that it would find. (We’ll have to remember to bring this to the lake with us this summer, maybe we’ll be able to dredge up that fishing pole of Kurt’s that was dropped in the lake…)
Anyway, on one of the sweeps it brought up this tiny pebble – which monte declared to be a meteorite. Hmmm. Maybe.
This is the only shot I snapped today. We’ll put this one in the boring column.
Okay, technically, there was one other shot, but it was taken a bit too close and the lens was all fogged up from the steam rising off the coffee filter.
Boring or not, it is a moment I look forward to every day. Using these Melitta cones takes a little more work than an automatic coffee maker but they make a great cup of coffee!
Something to strive for.
The cold/flu season is upon us. Monte came down with something yesterday and is down for the count today. Time to dig up those nearly expired decongestants!
Let’s see how long it takes to get to me, now. 🙂
Nothing says Superbowl Sunday like a cup of cocoa!
Big day at the homestead. As monte said…. we assembled a crack crew of computer professionals to reroof the little garden shed out back.
I couldn’t resist taking this shot of said hard-working crew with the laptop in the foreground. They were able to get the wireless all the way in the way-back so that they could google DIY how-to’s for installing shingles. 🙂
We’ve turned off the water to the house for now. We’ll have to wait till everything thaws out.
This is why I don’t complain when it hits 105 degrees in Central Texas. 😮
Brrrrr. We’ve been in the deep freeze. Day 3 of temperatures in the teens and 20’s.
Fire in the hearth. We’re cozy at home.
Well, today’s post is not a photo that I took, but it’s a screen shot from a movie I made this morning (you can check it out here)!
xtranormal is a website/tool that you can use to create movies using animated characters. You pick the characters and setting, supply the script, and direct the characters in the scene. You may have seen some of the humorous animated videos created with xtranormal on the web. I have, and just wanted to try it out for myself.
When you create an account you get 300 xtranormal points for free that you can spend on your set/scene and to publish it… that was just enough to cover my first attempt…. I call it…… “Welcome to my blog” 🙂
February 1st ?!! Yikes, 8.5 percent of 2011 is over already!
Well, the cold front has arrived. I woke up to temps in the low 30’s and that’s about as warm as it will be for a couple days.
I’m happy to report that the window shades and curtains in the gameroom seem to be working. The temp in the gameroom was the same as the rest of the house… for the first time on a cold winter day. (yay!)
Even with the shades and curtains, this room still gets a ton of light in the daytime, with the skylights. The houseplants in the gameroom love it.
This is an ivy plant from a basket my mom sent me for my birthday several months back. So far so good.
Well, tonight I went out to dinner with friends, and meant to bring my camera to get some shots of downtown Austin at night, but I left it behind.
So, you get the ivy shot instead 😉
Though it’s a Monday, today was a BEAUTIFUL, sunny day. But a very cold front is on the way, likely to arrive tomorrow.
The squirrels have been especially frantic running around. I can only imagine that they know it’s going to be freezing soon and they’re looking for a warm place to ride it out.
A couple years back we had 3 of those critters in our attic… what an ordeal it was to get them out. I’m happy to report they have not breached the defenses again (so far).
I think this is a raccoon pawprint, or at least something bigger than a squirrel.
The curtain project is complete!
My quest to put window coverings up in the gameroom to ward off the cold this winter was delayed a tad by having to back-order the curtains. But they finally arrived last week, so I set out today to hang the traverse curtain rods and pinch pleat draperies over the 2 sliding glass doors.
After several hundred trips up and down the ladder, I think they ended up fairly level and the right height off the ground.
Mission accomplished — just in time for the next arctic blast tomorrow. We’ll see if they make a difference.
Sheila365 